Nella Braddy (1894-1973), a pioneer among female editors, compiled this eight-story collection and published Masterpieces of Adventure: Adventures Within Walls in 1922. It features eight authors: Robert Louis Stevenson, O. Henry, Washington Irving, Anton Chekhov, Honoré de Balzac, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, and Leonidas Andreiyeff – all giants of writing in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A century since publication, we can perhaps have a new appreciation for what it means to take refuge within walls.
Braddy went on to write and edit more articles and books, including two more in the Masterpieces of Adventure series; one focused on Helen Keller’s breakthrough teacher, Anna Sullivan Macy, and a biography of Rudyard Kipling.
Once inside Adventures Within Walls, though, listeners hear sagas of confinement, with walls providing both shelter and imprisonment.
